Mass Effect: The Ark
by GladiusFerrum
Summary: In 2200, an Alliance vessel is sent to investigate a dormant ship that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The explorers hope for answers for long standing questions, while the politicians want their weapons to end the galaxy's cold war.
1. Prologue

_A/N: Special thanks for Lachdannen and Palaven Blues for helping me get this in some shape._

* * *

**MASS EFFECT**

THE ARK

Prologue

_2200 A.D. - Somewhere in the Nimbus Cluster_

Silence dominated the universe. Although the vast space provided no reason for claustrophobia, one could very well feel alone and trapped. Small dots of light painted the black canvas, providing energy for life in a never-ending battle against cold death.

A lonely communication buoy drifted on its orbit in the middle of nowhere. No stars close enough to warm up its surface, no planets to visit. A tiny layer of ice covered the machine's encasement like scales. It was alone in the dark, serving its purpose like it had for thousands of years. Its relatives were scattered all around the galaxy to make sure connection between family members living on different sides of the Milky Way could be established.

The space behind the device slowly distorted, then only a blink later, the buoy exploded silently, and shattered into thousands of pieces, each setting off into the vast space. Something else, something much bigger, took its place, disrupting the fragile system of communication.

_The Citadel_

Deep inside the hub of the galaxy, a beeping alarm shook up a bored salarian maintenance worker. Like many of his colleagues, he was also responsible for maintaining the communication buoy network across the galaxy. It wasn't exactly his dream job; no wonder he usually almost fell asleep during work hours. Today, however, seemed different. They rarely received any error messages from the buoys, and even if they did, several protocols said that they should first consult with a supervisor before taking any further steps. It took him a fraction of a second to realize that something had gone horribly wrong, as an important device in the Nimbus Cluster had gone completely offline.

He quickly started typing on the holographic keyboard to run diagnostics and soon shook his head. Checked and rechecked, but the buoy's diagnostic system didn't respond. His large eyes blinked rapidly, then looked at the screen in disbelief.

"This is agent C113, experiencing code 45 in sector 12. We might have a problem." He moved his lips like a fish gawping, asking for manager support.

His asari supervisor arrived only two minutes later. She wore a similar blue uniform as the salarian, covering her body from toe to neck. She paled, leaving her a lighter purple that her marking stood out against in deep relief. After her glance at the data, the salarian saw a flicker of fear in her eyes. She seemed to made up her mind quickly, as if she faced life-threatening danger, and touched her earpiece. "Patch me through to Citadel Defense," she said, "We might be under attack."


	2. Chapter One - Dormant

**Chapter One - Dormant**

_Somewhere in the Nimbus Cluster, three weeks after the buoy exploded_

Like a whale in the ocean, the giant ship gently drifted in space seemingly without purpose. Its sizes could make moons feel insignificant. Two enormous triangular wings stretched from the tube-like hull in the back, the smooth metallic surfaces covered the vessel's secrets like curtains of a stage.

The lone drifter got some company when a ship dropped out to FTL not too far away, nothing more than a piece of dust compared to the giant. The inscription on the Y-shaped body read SSV _Columbus_ with the blue logos of the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council painted beside_. _Aboard, curious explorers travelled to the space-whale, people who sought to unveil its well-hidden mysteries.

Commander Neil Collins, an N7-trained Alliance soldier watched their mission target from the _Columbus' _observation window on the bridge. His eyes, grey like stormy clouds, scanned the goliath ship with amazement, like a child seeing and comprehending the world for the first time.

_This is a bad idea_, he kept repeating in his mind ever since they departed. Yet, he would be the first human aboard and try making first contact with a new alien species. The thought of the burdening responsibility on his shoulders terrified him like the dark when he was only as tall as a coffee table.

Slowly, he stroked his hair, which even as short as it happened to be, curled like currents in the ocean. He had seen enough combat in the past years, but this mission had an entirely different purpose, something his training couldn't prepare him for. And that ate itself into his stomach, as if a parasite moved upside down inside his body.

"Status report!" the captain's voice echoed on the bridge, snapping Neil out of what felt like sinking underwater. Around the curved observation window sat all the specialists and the two pilots in their uniforms, blue as the sky on Earth. The crew around started to throw words at Captain Dave Clark. He sat in the middle on an elevated chair, which still needed some breaking in, as he told the crew not long before launch.

Neil listened to all the reports, except none seemed to be able to show up anything significant. And they called themselves the experts, he thought. No activity, radiation or anything. The ship stayed dormant ever since it appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the comm buoy. _What the hell is this thing?_ Neil wondered, and it seemed nobody could predict what would happen if they woke up this sleeping beauty, not even all the nerds aboard.

_Grissom had no idea what he was up to either_, he reminded himself and that thought gave him some comfort.

"Sir, I have my doubts about the mission," Neil said, turning to face his captain. They met long ago during Earth's Reaper invasion, yet _this_ Dave Clark seemed to be a completely different person than the one that pulled his teenager ass out of the ruins of Vancouver. Neil remembered to saw him as a perfect example for a strong soldier, a big-framed, muscular Marine, someone he could look up to. The Captain's native North American ancestry gave him a skin tanned as bronze, and a smile always painted on his face like a Cheshire cat, cheering the mood up.

Now, however, the captain looked tired of all the fights he endured, the wrinkles carved his cheeks like fjords had eroded their beds between mountains, his narrow eyes sunken deep, with a faint light glimmering in both like the farthest of stars. The color from his skin paled as if the bronze paint simply had been worn away over time.

"Commander, we're already here. We cannot turn back. The Council needs us to do this."

_Who the fuck cares about the Council?_ Neil asked in his mind, though he just nodded without another word. As he saw it, politicians drifted the galaxy into turmoil again with their stupid games. And yet they were still allowed to keep playing them, their toys being us, the people. Swallowing all that seemed to be the hardest thing as a soldier.

"Alright everyone, stand by until we report to Alliance Command," the captain said. He rose from his chair, waving at the commander to follow him.

Before Neil could move an inch, the entrance of the bridge hissed open. Dr. Michael Conroy walked in, his long steps quickly taking him to the window. The crew silenced in seconds, stopping mid-motion as they wanted to hear what the genius of the ship had to say.

Neil met him briefly on the docks shortly, yet enough to leave a bad taste in his mouth. _Looks like smart-ass caught the scent_, Neil's lips pulled to a small grin. Conroy was supposed to be their top genius, but so far seemed nothing more than someone who thought knew everything better than others. Smart-ass seemed an appropriate nickname for the guy in Neil's mind.

He followed Conroy's large steps with his eyes as the scientist made his way onto the CIC, and wondered if the man's gaunt frame and features were the results of a disease. That would explain why he decided to come along, despite the risk this mission could be suicide itself.

"Nice to see you up, Conroy," the captain greeted him, though it seemed the doc pretended he didn't hear the words. Instead, Conroy went ahead, picked up a datapad, and started browsing the measurements.

"Curious… most curious," the scientist whispered, his English origins well audible for those around.

Each soul in the CIC waited impatiently, maybe Conroy had some explanation to make sense of the results, but all he could do was hemming. Neil slowly shook his head in disbelief. The man probably detached himself from reality long ago.

Apparently, Neil wasn't the only one who got tired of Conroy, the captain headed out. Neil followed closely in his footsteps, glancing back over his shoulder one last time before disappearing from the bridge.

The comm room was situated right behind the CIC, with a table round as a disk and chairs all around it. In the middle of the circle, a holo projector pulsed slowly with light as blue as the Alliance's uniforms. The Captain sat down, while Neil took a seat on his right and activated the built-in touchscreen.

"Sir, the QEC is ready to broadcast," a female technician's voice echoed in the chamber. The acoustics of the room made Neil hear her voice as if she sat right beside him, which ran a sudden shiver up on his spine.

"Initiate transmission," the Captain said.

The pulsing now became a permanent shining blue light, with the projector slowly rendering a figure, building small pixels on top of each other like masons put bricks together to build up a home. In the end, the pixels formed a familiar face, Admiral Steven Hawley.

"_Columbus_, what a pleasant surprise. We've been waiting for your report for quite some time," he greeted the officers with a nod.

"Sorry sir, we've just dropped out of FTL couldn't come to you sooner," the Captain replied. Neil knew he would be nothing more than a sitting statue during the report. He didn't mind too much. Let the big heads do the talking, he craved more for some action. Just not on that _thing_.

"So far we don't have much; the scans came back without results, the ship is as dead as it gets," the Captain continued, while Hawley crossed his arms and raised a brow.

"Really? How's so?"

"The specialists say it could be shielded too well for our scanners. Not that it's hard not to spot, considering the sizes."

"You're right, that's not too much. We need answers and results, Captain. Preferably sooner than later."

"Understood, sir."

"There's one more thing that I don't want to sugar-coat, so I'm going to be blunt. The mission has been leaked to the public. We don't know by who, but we are trying to find the source. However, I believe you should expect some company from the Federation soon enough."

Neil and Captain Clark exchanged a nervous glance. _How the hell could the Alliance allow that to happen?_ Neil wondered. In an instant, this mission became much more complicated. They now had to expect some sort of competition down the road. The commander had already felt the gravity of the first contact beating down his shoulders like a thousand tons, yet some S.O.B. managed to make it even worse, tripping him as he tried to balance that weight. He feared he might get crushed under such burden. A frustrated sigh later, he wiped his eyes.

"Any other '_good_' news?" he asked in the end, breaking his own promise not to say a word on this meeting.

"We'll keep you posted. Hawley out."

And just like that, the holographic image disappeared into thin air. Neil dropped his fist on the table.

"Easy there, Commander. We are weeks ahead of the Federation," the Captain said, probably to calm his XO. "We can't really do anything from here about it. So suck it up."

"Yes, sir. But I have to be honest. The Federation wouldn't even exist if the Council wasn't idiotic enough to let those races ally with each other. And I wouldn't have to deal with krogans, drell, raloi, batarians or any of their other freak friends on top of that ship itself. I've told you already, _Tank_. I smell bullshit, and a pile bigger than Terra Nova was."

The commander stood up and stormed out of the room, fleeing away from any possible reactions. To say he felt pissed, it would have been an understatement. As a soldier, he'd learned to obey the direct orders. Except, sometimes it just felt as if every leader had their eyes and ears shut, not listening to reason. They only saw themselves swimming in a pool of power and money, whilst people like Neil risked their lives to give them that comfort. He decided to take a walk. He would have prefered to channel his frustration into some greedy politicians face, but all he could have done was to punch in the wall.

Eventually, he stopped in front of the elevator and took a deep breath to cleanse his mind. His comm activated with a crack, as if the device knew he felt better.

"Commander Collins, get your team ready. We are docking with the ship in fifteen minutes," Captain Clark echoed up from his radio. He had his orders, yet for several seconds he didn't move a muscle.

The sound of the elevator snapped him back to reality. As the door hissed open, he saw Conroy already inside.

"Airlock, I presume?" he asked with a smile, similar to that a well-fed toddler would show, yet forced like a knock-knock joke. Neil nodded and stepped into the machine. They felt a gentle pull when it began to move. An awkward silence fell on them, both men staring at the display that showed the number of level they were passing. Neil cleared his throat and inhaled to say something, but the lift stopped before any words could leave his lips.

"Time to go," Conroy said before leaving the elevator.

The rest of the team was already waiting, yet when Neil saw them, he felt a weird urge in his legs to run away from them. _You already let one family down, don't screw this up too_, he told himself.

Their squad had three more members.

One of them was the former asari commando, Faera T'lano, covered in her own hyphen painted black suit. True to her profession, her body seemed like the perfect killing machine with a pinch of lightness in her confident movements. The dark blue skin on her face looked like the million-year-old icebergs, frozen and full of wisdom. Two thin red lines from the bottom of her eyes ran down on her cheek, as if she was crying blood. Every asari looked perfect, yet Neil wouldn't dare to ask this particular specimen out for a date.

Leaning against the wall with an arsenal of weapons attached to various parts of his armor was a turian, called Thetus Nectus. The carapace on his face was covered with a yellow tattoo. Although Neil knew about these facepaints' purpose, he couldn't recognize the symbol, not to mention the color. The turian towered above his comrades, almost hitting the ceiling with his sweeping crest. He held his M-9 assault rifle in one of his three-fingered hands, his bird-like green eyes scanning the room.

In front of them, the other human member, Nick Donahue tried to put on his helmet. A good foot shorter than Thetus and hair so dark it seemed to absorb the light around him. With his young, boy-like features, he seemed to had stucked at his late teenage years. His stocky build, however, suggested he had some raw strength like a brute krogan.

_And he can move things with his brain, like Ms. Blueberry there_, Neil thought seeing Nick and the asari.

Neil motioned toward his own locker and started to prepare. Seeing the N7 logo on the chestplate gave him some confidence into the mixture of feelings that swirled inside him like a vortex. As he finished loading his assault rifle with thermal clips, he took out one additional weapon. He stared at the pistol for a moment.

"Hey, Conroy. Here, take this. I hope you know how to use it," he held out the gun. The scientist seemed surprised for a split-second, then took the firearm with a shrug.

"I actually had some training," Conroy said. Still, Neil suspected he had no more expertise in this field other than how to pull the trigger. Maybe he could aim well too, he hoped.

"So, you're Einstein combined with Rambo?" Donahue asked, his voice distorted by his helmet.

Neil caught Conroy's grin to the kid's words. It looked smug, as if he wanted to show Donahue what he really meant. Neil had a hunch the scientist could be dangerous. He quickly checked his rifle to make sure everything worked as it should on the M-9.

"Instead of insulting someone out of your league in terms of IQ, you should focus on your job, boy," Faera said with a forced smile sent towards Donahue. Neil saw the two staring at each other for seconds. Not too hard to decide that he should keep an eye on both of them, like two cantankerous children. He had to admit the only person in this team who seemed to get along perfect was the tight-lipped Thetus.

"Attention. Docking procedure initiated," a female voice announced on the speakers. Neil's heart rate began to rise. He wished he could see what was happening outside and not just be a doll inside a metal box.

When they made contact, the collision shook the airlock and all its occupiers, tossing the squad into the wall with a bone-breaking force. Neil let out a silent "Son of a– ," as Conroy's body crashed down on top of him, rushing the air out of his lungs.

"Shit, what the hell happened with _gentle_ docking, guys?!" he cried out, stripping Conroy off himself. He scanned the others with the omni-tool, then let himself exhale when all of them started to move and the scan showed no injuries. _Except their big pride_, he added in thought.

The docking procedure didn't stop for them to collect themselves though. The VI was already equalizing the pressure and they all had to put on their helmets last-minute.

"Get into position," Neil gave the order and went ahead to face the airlock's blast door. Behind him, Thetus and Faera stepped beside both arms of Conroy, while Nick covered their back.

Neil felt his mouth dry out as if he just took a tour in a hot desert. His heart pumped the blood faster and stronger, his veins feeling like they wanted to explode on the inside from the pressure. He raised his M-9 rifle to point at the door, hoping he wouldn't have to use it on the other side. The adrenaline rush made the world look like a slow-motion video and the wait just made everything worse.

He heard the locks clicking, as if someone opened a dozen bottles of champagne simultaneously.

_Am I ready?_ he asked himself.

The hydraulics opened the door and a thick darkness greeted the explorers, black as the worst nightmares. It seemed to have no ending or beginning, vast like space itself.

_You only need a candle to destroy darkness_, Neil remembered his mother's words from long ago and switched on the flashlight.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for Lachdannen for reviewing the drafts!_


	3. Chapter Two - Contact

**Chapter Two - Contact**

"Conroy, we have to go!" the soldier shifted, sighing.

Dr. Michael Conroy grumbled before he replied, his British tones showing his annoyance.

"I would already be done if you didn't bother me every bloody second! Just go, Commander."

Neil towering behind him shook his head and activated his comm. "SSV _Columbus_, come in, this is Commander Collins."

The line remained static for a few seconds, then, "What is it, Commander?"

"It's Conroy, sir … he's still resisting leaving this damned wreck," the Marine reported. Moments stretched into minutes. At last, he heard a crackle, like wood breaking, and his ship responded.

"Bring him back unconscious if you have to, Collins, I'm not letting that bastard kill himself under my command." The captain left no room for questioning the order in the finality of his voice; even when he wasn't present, they should obey.

"Aye, aye, Captain. You heard the man, let's get the hell out of here."

"Not yet!" Conroy still resisted, his long and skinny fingers dancing on the console's interface with such speed the armored soldier couldn't even follow what he was doing.

Patience was a virtue, one Commander Neil Collins didn't possess at the time. He motioned ahead and detached his pistol from his hip, pointing right at Conroy's helmet.

The scientist chuckled as he saw the soldier from the corner of his eye. Neil heard two faint voices in his head. One, his own survival instinct, telling him to leave this rotter alone to his fate. And another, his inner man, whispering he had to convince him to leave, whatever it took. His anger clouded his sight for just one split-second, yet he was moments away from hitting him with the butt of his pistol. Shooting him, of course, was not an option, much to his dismay.

"Seriously?" the scientist asked, grinning, still burying his head into the device, the arrogant look on his face more irritating than words could have been in the situation.

"Move, goddamit!" Neil said, still scarcely controlling himself, except the stubborn Conroy wouldn't turn away from the console that had alien symbols all over it.

Conroy twisted and turned a few of the 'buttons' in their slots and rails, as if he was aware of their purpose.

The dim lights switched off, letting the heavy curtain of darkness fell on the two. Both men's hearts skipped a few beats before brighter lamps took the former bulbs' place in an instant, filling the circular room with some warming light. _It makes the monsters run away_, Neil remembered his distant childhood with a relieved sigh. Yet some shadows still remained, cloaking the threats and watching eyes. Even in the cozy enviro-suit, the thought made Neil shiver. He already hated the place.

"Life-support activated," Conroy announced, his tone smug as ever for this remarkable achievement. Checking his omni-tool though, he saw they had air for less than ten more minutes in their suits. That wouldn't have been enough to get back to their own ship without the life-support. That froze his smile off.

Neil put his gun away and carefully took off his helmet, sniffing into the air. Artificial, and smelled like dead bodies, but at least his lungs still worked and they weren't dead. _A relief nonetheless_, he thought. His grey and furious eyes still trained on Conroy, he felt an urge to punch the scientist in his ugly, stupid face. He chose the less violent road and pushed him hard to the rusty wall beside the console. As Conroy's back hit the metallic surface, Neil could swear he heard a faint crack.

"If you ever disobey direct orders again …" He loomed over the weaker man, resisting the voice of the devil to destroy him. It would be just too easy, yet so satisfying.

"Then what? You'll kill me, Commander?" Conroy asked, his lips pulling to another arrogant smirk. With his deep wrinkles and waxy cheeks, the scientist reminded him of an undead man, here to haunt the living. His combed hair now messed up due to the struggle, a greasy lock dangled on his forehead. Neil finally let the asshole go and turned his back on him.

"Did you find out _anything_ about the ship?" He gestured at the ancient, alien consoles, his movements jerky and harsh. His muscles felt tense, as if they wanted to take over and just hit that S.O.B.

The scientist stroked his left cheek before answering, "I was trying to save our lives, Commander. I had no time to access the database yet." Conroy paused for a brief moment and chuckled. "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how I was even successful at activating the life-support system exactly."

_There's your freakin' genius_, Neil thought, anger bubbling back up in his throat, threatening to choke him. He swallowed it back down, instead.

The unpleasant beeps of their comm device snapped Neil from his thoughts, just as the captain's voice blared out of them. "Shore party, status report."

Neil rubbed his eyes, wishing the day was shorter and he could spend the rest of it in a bed. Or at least those things that were in the crew's quarters people dared calling bed. "We're still alive, sir. Life-support is on, no need to bring Conroy's ass back. The others can join us again."

Captain Dave Clark copied the reply a blink later. Looking around, Neil jumped to the conclusion that the formerly dim lights did much good to the place compared to the bright ones. The rust had eaten most of the walls, leaving the carved forms in the metal disrupted or completely ruined, their intent lost forever in time. In its full glory, the room was once probably a more pleasant architectural piece, but now it looked just like rotten insides of an old egg. When they first stepped aboard, Conroy had expressed his theory that the ship could be ancient, Neil remembered. Probably even the doc thought it would be in a better condition than this, though.

Turning around, the commander saw the scientist stepping back to the console and diving into work. "Just don't get us killed," Neil warned him, pondering what he should do in the meantime.

Unfortunately, he was responsible for the man and leaving him alone was, to his dismay, out of question. Still, he felt the need to catch some "fresh" air and cleanse his mind, except his squadmates were still probably in the long process of getting on the vessel.

With a sigh, he moved beside Conroy to see what he was doing. "Any idea what these things even mean?" he asked, reaching for one of the buttons. The interface looked more like a puzzle than a keyboard. All symbols had been carved into a triangle, rectangle or something similar, always with edges and never circular. They could be moved left and right or up and down in their straight rails, some even moveable to a different slot. Conroy grabbed Neil's wrist before he could touch a rectangle-shaped object, his grip stronger than what Neil would have expected.

"Don't touch anything!" he told the Marine. "I told you, I cannot work if you keep asking me ridiculous questions."

"Understood," the commander pulled his arm back, swallowing his frustration and need to break the little man's face.

He went on to sit down beside the console on the floor, leaning against the cold wall. He detached his pistol from the belt and looked toward the two corridors that led to the room. On his left, the hall they'd come in through beckoned, now shining in comforting and protecting white light, calling him to its safety, while the other sat bathed in gloomy darkness. Who even knew where that one led?

A good five minutes passed, when Neil started to feel cold drops on the top of his head. He reached for the spot and his hand came away wet. Looking up, he saw the culprit, a leaky ventilation shaft just above him. "Shit…" he whispered, standing up. The dripping became more and more intense. His head started to itch a bit, however sounds of steps from the left corridor made him ignore the uncomfortable sensation.

Soon, his squadmates returned, with an additional person, the biologist Dr. Eve Park. She had soot black hair, dark as space outside, the longest lock reaching only her ears. Neil couldn't help admiring her hourglass curves in the armor suit, and those eyes, brown as chestnut and mystical like the dark hallway on the other side.

She was escorted by the asari Feara, the turian Thetus, and as always, behind them Nick Donahue brought up the rear.

Taking two longer steps, Nick took the lead of the small group and caught Neil staring at Eve Park. "Don't start the speech, boss, she insisted," he said, forestalling Neil's question, shrugging in the process.

Neil couldn't really pay much attention though, his itching now burned, as if somebody lit his hair on fire. He started to worry if that fluid wasn't even water, but some sort of hazardous chemical.

"I decided to come by, since meeting a new, intelligent alien culture is inevitable. Better to have a few experts around in that case," the doctor said.

Neil shook his head, the conversation being only secondary on his list. A wave of dizziness hit him making him reach for something to lean on. He blinked, hoping it would pass, but his stomach decided to jump on the train and twisted in sudden nausea. Fear of the unknown quickly carved its way into him, he felt his heart beating like it wanted to escape from his rib cage. Opening his lips, he desperately tried to cry for help, but instead of words, he couldn't do more than a bleak groan. His vision blurred and darkened, the shadows slowly eating him up from the inside. The voices of his squadmates seemed so far away, they may as well have been back on the _Columbus_.

_What the hell is happening to me?_ he asked himself before dropping unconscious.

* * *

Opening his eyes, Neil started to gasp for air. He was underwater, the surface nowhere to be seen. His lungs were empty, and despite his N7 training, he felt panic quickly taking over him. It took a few seconds to realize he wasn't actually choking for some unexplainable reason and he could breathe normally.

_Am I dead?_ he wondered, yet the experience felt too real and strange. His body floated in the fluid, except he couldn't move his hands or legs to swim away, only his eyes, but apart from the dark blue of water, there was nothing to see. Small bubbles slowly whirled around his eyes rapidly, seemingly caused by a current, but then a bunch of them stopped in front of him. That was when he saw _them_. Electrical discharges danced inside the bubbles, a mesmerizing sight that somehow filled him with peace and calmed his mind. They were wondrous, like fireworks on the night sky. Dozens of them converged into one spot, melting together until they formed a bubble as big as Neil's own head. It started to sculpt a figure from electrical currents. Slowly, Neil recognized a face without features in it.

"Leave!" it said, the voice being faint as one would expect underwater, yet authoritative. "Not... ready!" it continued seemingly struggling with the words, now threatening, "Ours!"

Neil had no idea what this mumble meant, only that this _thing_ had to be some kind of alien life-form. "Why?" he asked eventually.

"NOT WORTHY!" insisted the alien, the sparks dancing faster.

The thought that he initiated first contact with a new, alien species hit him like an oncoming train in a tunnel. He thought of himself more as a master of fighting than words. There would be dozens of more suitable people aboard the _Columbus_ for this task. Afraid he would unwillingly frustrate this species, he tried to be as diplomatic as he could. Even narrowing the dozens of questions to just a few seemed hard as lifting the heavy weights back on Earth.

"We mean no harm, we just want to meet you and understand you," he said, trying to find the best words mid-sentence. "Where did you come from?"

_It shouldn't be me._ He was trained for combat, not negotiations, Neil wasn't the type to sit down and chat for hours. It frustrated him that he could screw this up just because he prefered doing over talking. _Shepard would have known what to do_, Neil pondered, disappointed in himself. He couldn't move in the water, yet he sensed his pulse in his neck, his heart rapidly pumping blood in his limbs, the adrenaline feeling as if someone poured cement in his veins.

The bubble's sparks disappeared for a second, then concentrated in its nose and hit Neil in the forehead. He felt an unbelievably strong headache, as if someone pushed a giant needle through his brain, then as fast as it came, the pain floated away. He was, however, still in the water with the alien.

"This, not your place. Mistake, to come here."

_So you know more than just a few words in English_, Neil thought, _And sound like that green guy in those old space movies_, he added in his own head, but the bubble seemed to be unimpressed.

"We need help," he said, "War is threatening our galaxy!" It had been so for ten long years now though, but this ship could mean the end of it.

"Not our concern," the alien told him without room for questioning. Neil couldn't really argue with them. They were probably not even from this galaxy, for all he knew.

"Why did you even come here? What is this ship?" he kept going, hoping it would eventually lead somewhere, desperately clinging into this small thread of hope for answers.

"Protection," the alien finished then the only bubble exploded into thousands and Neil was snapped back to reality.

* * *

"He's regaining consciousness," Neil heard a familiar voice, soft, like gentle waves of the ocean. _Definitely the biologist one_, he determined. He opened his eyes slowly, only to see all the others leaning over him, except Conroy. He slowly sat up, trying to ignore the stares from his squad.

"Sir, what happened? Are you okay? You passed out for a moment." Donahue looked like he had seen a ghost. Neil rubbed his eyes and peeked at the vent shaft. It was completely dry.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "But I'm okay, don't worry about me."

Dr. Park scanned him with her omni-tool.

"I'm fine!" Neil exclaimed pushing her arm away, jumping to his feet, "Jesus, don't you have other stuff to do than to stare at me? You guys look like creeps," he added, his face flushing by the embarrassment like heated metal. He needed trust and respect from his men, but he doubted passing out in front of them improved their opinion of him. Turning his eyes upon Conroy, it seemed the genius didn't even realize what happened a moment ago. "Conroy, anything on where the hell we are? I don't want to spend too much time here."

Conroy smirked at the question, a gesture Neil would gladly give him a slap for. Repeatedly. "I did, actually," Conroy responded, leaving the others hanging in suspense for a while.

"Oh, spit it out already," Faera demanded this time instead of Neil. Somehow, it felt good not to be the one asking the obvious.

"It's an ark. An intergalactic ark …"

Jaws dropped around the room, even the always silent Thetus seemed shocked just like Neil, who couldn't even comprehend the significance of the discovery. _An ark? A goddamn ark? _he slowly realized how obvious this had been. The ship had an enormous hull, like a whale swimming amongst the stars. Who knew how many knowledge could be hidden in a ship like this? God knows, he tried, but it was beyond his power to imagine how much they could learn.

The geeks would know, though, and already he saw Park or Conroy running around excited like a five-year-old for finding something new. Neil swallowed, feeling a rush of adrenaline as his own little puzzle came together. The whole first contact experience made more sense now, and he was the only one aware they weren't alone in that room.

"Protection," he whispered.

* * *

_A/N: aaand yet another thank you for Palaven Blues and Lachdannen for their critical eyes ;)_


End file.
